Women’s Studies J111:  Women in Culture
Syllabus, Fall 2000

Instructor:  Dr. Lisa Rashley
Web address:  http://www.sc.edu/lancaster/faculty/rashley 
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Fall 2000 Calendar of Assignments

August	8/24-9/3 Weeks 1 & 2
September	9/4-9/10 Week 3	9/11-9/17 Week 4	9/18-9/24 Week 5	9/25-10/1 Week 6
October	10/2-10/8 Week 7	10/9-10/15 Week 8	10/16-10/22 Week 9	10/23-10/29 Week 10
November	10/30-11/5 Week 11	11/6-11/12 Week 12	11/13-11/19 Week 13	11/20-11-26 Week 14
December	11/27-12/8 The End!

• Introduction to the course and policies. Please familiarize yourself with this syllabus and the course policy, which can be found under Course Information on Blackboard. Please also email me at lrashley@gwm.sc.edu to indicate that you've successfully attended the course for the first time and have read the class policy and syllabus.
• Introduce yourself, and tell us about why you're taking this course. You can join the discussion by clicking on the Discussion Board tab on the left-hand side of the screen.
• What is a feminist? In the Discussion Board, we'll discuss what we think "feminism" is. You should have contributed at least two substantial posts by 3 September, 8:00 p.m. Remember that it's very important not to wait until the last minute to participate in discussion and chat (especially since that's the Sunday night before our Labor Day holiday!). Please see Course Information, Course Assignments and Grade Distribution, for the policy on participating in discussion.
• August 30 is the last day to change a course schedule or drop a course without a grade of "W" being recorded.

September 4 to September 10:  Week 3

You have four assignments this week. On September 4, Labor Day Holiday, no classes will be held.

• Follow the link in Blackboard to read NOW's "Statement of Purpose."  Your first response on this text will be due on September 8 by 8:00 p.m. Please click the Assignments tab for a full description of what a reader's response is, a sample reading response, and for directions on how to submit your response. Your response on the "Statement of Purpose" needs only to be to the statement itself, not to any of the links from the page, although you're more than welcome to read and comment on those if you choose to.
• By Sunday, 10 September, you should have created a course web site. DON'T PANIC! You don't have to know how to create one—just how to fill in blanks. You can create your course website by clicking on Tools, then on Edit Your Homepage. To view your classmate's homepages, click on Communication, then Roster. I'd like to ask that each of you post a photo in your website—you can either ask someone to take a digital photo of you—many libraries have one you can borrow—or you can scan an existing photograph. If you're not sure how to do this, ask around your campus until you find a knowledgeable person—I'm not sure myself what resources each campus has. Please let me know if you have any trouble getting a digital photo. Also, a word about security. People who are not enrolled in our class cannot access the Communication features of our course, so your web site and your photo will NOT be available to anyone not enrolled in our class. You don't need to make your web page long and detailed, but do try to make it personal enough that people can take a look at it and get a good idea of who you are. I'm looking forward to being able to attach some faces to the names I'm learning!
• If you click on Assignments, then Homework, you'll find a short homework assignment. It will ask you to do a bit of reading, then to participate in a new discussion forum.
• Be sure that you've ordered your book. We'll be starting readings on September 11.

September 11 to September 17:  Week 4

In addition to our work for week four, this week will also be a catch-up week. I've been pretty lenient with deadlines for discussions and for responses so far, because we've been working on getting all the bugs out of the program, and I've also been trying to accommodate people who, because of these multiple technical problems, have not yet been able to access the course. By now, though, everyone should have worked out all their bugs and should be fully participating in class. Any assignment you haven't completed yet, you may complete without penalty, by 8:00 p.m., Sunday, 17 September. Anything not submitted by that time will be considered late work, and will not be accepted. If you are still having difficulties of any kind, please contact me immediately so that we can get these issues resolved.

• Read "Gender Socialization," by Clare Renzetti and Daniel Curran (pages 4-25 in Feminist Philosophies). If you don't have your book yet, please contact me immediately, and let me know also when you expect to receive your copy.
• Read "X: A Fabulous Child's Story, by Lois Gould (Feminist Philosophies 26-31).
• Submit your second reader's response to either ONE of the articles—you may choose which one to discuss. Or you may, if you like, discuss both in a single response. Post your response in under Tools> Digital Drop Box as before. Your response must be submitted by no later than 8:00 p.m., Thursday, 21 September.
• Continue to participate in the Jokes and Gender discussion board. We'll be continuing to talk about the jokes, but adding a discussion of how we're socialized in our gender roles. You should have contributed at least three substantial posts (in addition to what you posted last week) by 8:00 p.m. on Sunday, September 17.
• Under Assignments, you'll find a very short survey I've put together to ask for your input on two matters about how the course is structured. It's called, appropriately enough, "A quick survey on two little points." Would you please submit your responses by Friday, 15 September? It shouldn't even take 5 minutes. I appreciate your help with this.
• September 14 is the last day to apply for December graduation.

September 18 to September 24:  Week 5

• Your second response either to "Gender Socialization" or to "X" is due on Thursday, September 21 by 8:00 p.m.
• Your new assignment for the week is a research assignment. Using the libraries on your various campuses, I'd like you to research two pairs of terms: sex/gender, and nature/nurture. It's important to understand the nuances of meaning in these pairs, particularly in light of our discussion last week about gender socialization. You need to locate two sources for each term, so a total of four sources, which can be from electronic databases, general encyclopedias, or more specialized reference books dealing with gender issues. Ask your reference librarian for help—this is a good time to become familiar with the resources of your library, because we will be starting more formal research projects in a few weeks. By no later than Sunday, September 24 by 8:00 p.m., you should have written a one-page definition of the two pairs of terms, about a half-page for each of the pairs. On a second page, include references for the sources you used in your definitions. Please post these definitions to the digital drop box, titling your file definitions your name.doc (mine would be definitions Lisa Rashley.doc).
• We're not going to have a new discussion forum this week, although I'd like to encourage you to continue to participate in the very interesting conversations going on in the Jokes, Gender Socialization, and X. You aren't required to do this, but it can't hurt either! Y'all are doing a great job with the discussions—I'm very pleased.

September 25 to October 1:  Week 6

I've posted your assignment for this week under Assignments > Group Representation Presentations. You've already been assigned to groups, and you'll find the assignments listed under the Groups button.  Presentations are all we'll be doing this week—you should have chosen your site for the presentation as a group by Friday, 29 September (please have your group facilitator email me the URL by the end of the day Friday), and have your presentation finished and turned in to me by Sunday, October 8.

Back to Calendar

October 2 to October 8:  Week 7

Continue to work on Group Representation Presentations—these are due by midnight on Sunday, October 8.

October 5 is the last day to drop a course or withdraw without a grade of "WF" being recorded.

Back to Calendar

October 9 to October 15:  Week 8

1. The assignment for your short paper, due October 20, has now been posted; take a look at it under Assignments. Please make plans to begin this paper as soon as possible; you may want some feedback on your drafts, or you may have questions, and I can't answer those from all of you at the last minute, so be budget your time accordingly.
2. A new discussion board on Gloria Steinem's "Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellion" (Feminist Philosophies 345-48) opens today, October 9. We'll be using this forum to discuss this reading and to begin to define liberal feminism, so we'll be integrating a lot of the work we've done in the class to this point into this discussion, particularly our second forum. You should have at least three substantial posts by Sunday, October 15.
3. Your third reader's response is due to be posted in the drop box by Sunday, October 15 on Susan Moller Okin's "Justice, Gender, and the Family" (Feminist Philosophies 313-31). You should be receiving both a progress report and any outstanding reader's responses this week—I graded a pile of stuff this weekend, and am going to start returning it Tuesday (I'm booked most of this afternoon and can't get them all uploaded today). Your progress report will come out over email, and it will also serve as notice that your responses have been posted.

October 16 to October 29:  Weeks 9 and 10

October 16-17 is Fall Break, and no classes will be held.

This week's assignment will be to write a double response; this will count as response #4 and 5, and will count 50 points total. The response should be about 1000-2000 words, double the length of a usual response. The double response should be posted in the digital drop box (be sure to use send file, by the way, not add file) by midnight on Sunday, 29 October. Please read the following and discuss them in your response:

• "Professional Women: How Real Are the Recent Gains?" by Debra Renee Kaufman (Feminist Philosophies 189-202)
• "The Job of Housewife," by Barbara R. Bergman (Feminist Philosophies 202-16)
• U.S. Department of Labor Women's Bureau http://www.dol.gov/dol/wb/  (When looking at the DOL site, please look briefly through everything to familiarize yourself with the nature of the site, but pay special attention to the section titled "Statistics and Data." BE WARNED: This site sometimes loads very slowly.)

• USC 1999-2000 Fact Book http://kudzu.ipr.sc.edu/00fact/fact00.htm 

The other thing you need to start working on is getting copies of magazines. For an upcoming assignment, we'll be looking at groups of magazines--you'll need one magazine that's geared towards a general readership (like Time or Newsweek), one that's geared predominately towards a female readership (like Women's Day or Cosmopolitian, and one that's geared towards a predominately male readership (like Sports Illustrated or Men's Journal. You don't have to buy these magazines, although I would recommend it if you possibly can, since it would make your work easier. If you're strapped for cash, though, you can use the periodicals collection of your local public library (which will probably have more variety in popular magazines than most academic libraries). Go ahead and start rounding these up—we'll need them first thing after the next round of group presentations.

Back to Calendar

October 30 to November 5:  Week 11

To access the assignment for the research project, please click here.  The research proposal is due November 8, 2000, the workingbibliographyy is due on November 19, and the final paper by December 14.
November 7 is Election Day, and no classes will be held.

Back to Calendar

November 6 to November 12:  Week 12

To access the assignment for the research project, please click here.  The research proposal is due November 8, 2000, the workingbibliographyy is due on November 19, and the final paper by December 14.

Between now and November 8, I'd just like you to work on your research proposals. While yall work on that, I'm going to try to catch up on grading all your papers. I am way behind! I don't know how yall manage to put up with my slow self.... :) (I hope!)

Back to Calendar

November 13 to November 19:  Week 13

• Working bibliographies for your research projects are due to be submitted through the drop box by Sunday, November 19. Please remember to format your entries appropriately in MLA format. You may annotate the bibliography if you wish, but that's not required.
• Your sixth reading response on is due on Wednesday, November 22. For this response, you may choose to read any article in Feminist Philosophies that we have not yet read for a response or discussed in one of the discussion forums. It is very important that you identify which article you're responding to in your header.
• To access the assignment for the second set of group projects, please click here.  The group project is due on 1 December 2000. To access your group, click on the Groups button in Blackboard.

November 20 to November 26:  Week 14

During the beginning part of the week, continue work on the group projects.  During Thanksgiving, however, let's suspend work entirely.
November 22-26 is Thanksgiving recess, and no classes will be held.

Back to Calendar

November 27 to December 8:  The End!

• The deadline for your second group projects has been extended to Wednesday, 6 December.  Let me know if any group would like me to take a look at a draft of your presentation.
• Friday, December 8, your final response is due.  This one will be a double response; click here for the assignment.
• December 8 is the last day of classes, and our final meeting, so to speak.  Your research project must be posted by no later than December 14, 8:00 p.m. If your project is a web site, please email me the URL when the final version has been posted.